thanks Rand. This is really solid advice. You made me realize that one can also use this approach within a large work community where there are thousands of people in a distributed network, in many different departments and functions. If you want to roll out a new program or initiative, you should start by making a lot of friends and improving relationships -- especially with opinion leaders in the network. The advice you gave would really come in handy in building social capital in any community -- be it a work community or a larger community of colleagues, friends, etc that you described.

Thanks. I think you are right on track with your approach here. I think my best blog posts come out when I'm very curious about my topic. Then the research work becomes pretty easy if I am just pursuing my natural curiosity about a given topic. I also find that my best consulting outcomes occur when I get curious about a workplace problem and approach it with that intense curiosity. As my training is in industrial-organizational psychology, I wonder how we can help people get in to a state of curiosity who have a hard time doing so? Carol Dweck has conducted a lot of research on mindsets -- particularly the growth mindset and its opposite -- the fixed mindset. It seems to me that the growth mindset would give rise to curiosity, and the fixed mindset would stunt it. So following Dweck's advice (http://mindsetonline.com/) on developing a growth mindset could make it easier for someone to get curious about a topic that seems dull or boring on the surface.